BESSY II provides optimal services for its users and has established a comprehensive quality management system. Photo: HZB/M. Setzpfandt

User Coordination receives the ISO 9001 certificate from TÜV Süd

HZB has established a comprehensive quality management system for its User Service at BESSY II. TÜV Süd put this system through intensive testing and, on 21 November 2017, awarded it the ISO 9001 certificate. BESSY II is thus the first European synchrotron radiation source to have its user service approved under these strict quality criteria.

“We want to provide an optimal service for the users of BESSY II, based on transparent and highly professional processes. With the ISO certification from TÜV Süd, we show how seriously we mean that. We are delighted to be the first Helmholtz centre to have a certified user service, and thus to assume a leading role among the European light sources,” says acting Scientific Director Prof. Dr. Bernd Rech.

“This very positive test result showed full compliance with the 56 requirements chapters of the quality standard – without any major or minor nonconformities. The ISO certification is also independent confirmation of how HZB has established efficient and fair processes in its User Coordination,” explains HZB’s Quality Management Officer, Dr. Gerwin Zeibig.

Quality report: 92 percent of BESSY II users are satisfied

The core quality goals by which we measure our user services are “scientific output”, “outstanding infrastructure”, “high user satisfaction”, and “expansion of the user base”. Each year, the User Coordination department creates a quality report to see how HZB measures against these goals. The report includes feedback from the users as well as data and statistics from the GATE user portal.

“For 2016, the report revealed an outstanding average user satisfaction rate of 92 percent. We are pleased to see that our efforts to establish user-friendlier processes through quality management are being perceived in the community,” says the head of user coordination, Dr. Antje Vollmer.

A brief overview of the quality management system in User Coordination is presented on the HZB website.

The HZB ISO 9001 certificate

The scope of the certification applies to “coordination and service for the use of scientific infrastructures”, under certificate register No.: 12 100 54875 (www.tuev-sued.de/ms-zert). This certification also entitles HZB to advertise with the TÜV Seal of Approval.

ISO 9001 is an internationally recognised standard for quality management. More than 1.1 million ISO 9001 certificates have been awarded worldwide. Most of these are in Europe (41 %) and Asia (47 %). A number of centres within the Helmholtz Association apply this standard in the domains of development, administration, and even data collection.